Swire Pacific Offshore launches Pacific Dragon AHTS

4/21/2014

Swire Pacific Offshore launches Pacific Dragon AHTS

SINGAPORE -- Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO) celebrated the launch of its new D-Class vessel, Pacific Dragon on Good Friday.

The launch and naming ceremony of Pacific Dragon was held at close to midnight on 17 April at ST Marine shipyard. The event was graced by Lady Sponsor, Camille Gribble and attended by more than 160 working partners, employees and family members of ST Marine and SPO. Camille Gribble is the wife of the Finance Director of SPO, Nigel Gribble. The launch of Pacific Dragon marked the completion of the eight vessel D-Class series of 240T bollard pull, flexible and environmentally-friendly anchor handling tug supply vessels.

“The D-Class vessels represent a significant investment for SPO, forming a central part of our fleet expansion, re-balance and renewal strategy to meet the growing demand for large, modern, high specification, deepwater offshore support vessels. We are very pleased with their range of operational capabilities and safety and technical performance in serving the needs of our customers around the world,” says MD of SPO, Neil Glenn.

Vessels in the D-Class series delivered to date include Pacific Defiance (28 February 2013), Pacific Diligence (3 April 2013), Pacific Dolphin (15 August 2013), Pacific Dove (3 January 2014), Pacific Discovery (3 March 2014), Pacific Duchess (6 March 2014). Pacific Dispatch is scheduled to be delivered in mid June 2014. Pacific Dragon is the last of a series of six D-Class vessels that are built by ST Marine for SPO and will be delivered by the second half of this year.

The D-Class vessels are well-equipped with advanced technical capabilities to support the latest generation of semi-submersible rigs operating in harsh deep water environments. Built to clean-class SPS 2008 and ice notations, these Havyard-designed vessels are designed to be fuel-efficient, to reduce environmental impact in whichever roles they are deployed to perform and to enhance safety during demanding deck anchor handling operations. They possess large capacity 500 MT RRM Brattvagg winches, latest dynamic positioning technology, enhanced station keeping with independent drop down azimuth thrusters, recovery frame (ARF) and travelling cranes. The vessels also have ample cargo capacity and deck space for a wide range of other offshore applications.